Soulbinder by Sebastien de Castell – Review

Published: December 4, 2018

Publisher: Orbit

Series: Spellslinger #4

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Pages: 432 (Paperback)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

A failed mage learns that just because he’s not the chosen one it doesn’t mean he can’t be a hero in the fourth book of an exciting adventure fantasy series from Sebastien de Castell.

For an outlaw spellslinger, the only way to survive is to hide.

Kellen’s curse is growing stronger, promising a future of madness and murder. And now that the bounty hunter sworn to kill ever last shadow black have caught his trail, he knows his days are numbered

Desperate, Kellen braves a barren desert to find a mysterious order of monks rumored to posses a cure. But there are secrets darker and more dangerous than Kellen expected, and the price of his salvation may be more than he’s willing to pay.

Yet another installment in the Spellslinger series has proved to be a major success! Somehow, despite reading these books so closely together I haven’t gotten tired of them yet, so that’s definitely a win. They have provided a welcome break between denser or darker books, though with this installment the light mood has mostly fled. Soulbinder was actually pretty dark and I’m not just saying that because, you know, the shadowblack.

Kellen and Reichis have set off on their own and once again we begin the novel with them in mortal peril, but this time they have no companions to save their skin. Kellen is rescued by strange mages and whisked off to the Ebony Abbey where those afflicted by the shadowblack take refuge and hone their skills in safety. Reichis however… well, the little eye-muncher isn’t so lucky. Kellen is now truly alone and it’s difficult to tell if his compatriots in suffering are friend or foe.

I definitely like how these stories are progressing and each book has played out in a fairly unexpected manner. Now that I’ve reach book four, some things are becoming less surprising. For instance, it seems of little surprise that the book starts off with Kellen and Reichis in peril and as it progresses it was unsurprising that Kellen miraculously gets out of so many scrapes alive. What did surprise me were the who’s, how’s, and why’s. I guess it really is the journey rather than the destination in this case and I’m definitely still just as excited about reading Queenslayer as I was about reading Soulbinder. Kellen has had an interesting journey that must be played out until the very end.

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